The Good
A great show that set the standard for television westerns.
The Bad
One would think that with 6 discs they could have put some sort of Special Features on this release?
Gunsmoke: The Complete First Season gives us 39 episodes spread out over 6 discs. At the helm is Marshal Matt Dillon (James Arness), Miss Kitty (Amanda Blake), Doc Adams (Milburn Stone) and Deputy Chester Goode (Dennis Weaver). Together, these four characters do their best to keep the peace in their rough town of Dodge City, Kansas. Whether Dillon is faced with saving a man’s life by performing an operation (“Home Surgery”), or the town is up in arms about a former convict working at the bank (“General Parcley Smith”), or Matt goes up against the sheriff of another town when he doesn’t like the way he practices law (“No Handcuffs’), or lastly, Matt and his friends face an armed riot in “Prairie Happy,” this show works because of the respect that all the participants seem to have for the western genre.
MOVIEWEB VIDEO OF THE DAY
Having been on the air for 20 years, Gunsmoke is a standard bearer as far as television westerns are concerned. There was a rugged authority about this show, a grittiness that really went out of it’s way to show itself in every corner of every story. The main cast of this show was so solidly put together, we as viewers we have no choice but to follow their stories no matter how pedestrian the outcome might ultimately end up being.
Features
No Extras came with this release.
Video
Full Screen Format. You can read below to get a more in-depth reading of what I thought of the picture quality. All in all it seemed okay. There was nice contrast between the blacks and whites, although I did notice an almost glowing whiteness that seemed to pervade a lot of the shots. The black and white look of this show seems to add a whole other level of dimension to many of the characters. There is a lush richness in all the shots that comes through even when it’s apparent that the show is being lensed on a Hollywood set. Also, they admit to editing these episodes on this release it makes me wonder just how much we are missing in this “First Season” set?
Audio
Dolby Digital: English Mono. The audio on my TV had to be turned up about halfway but once I did that things played fine. As I have said, Paramount is hit or miss with a lot of their TV on DVD releases. Things sounded solid here but something tells me, had there not been so many episodes on each disc, the audio might not have sounded so compacted? While we don’t miss any of the sounds of the old west, I am wondering if our systems need to work so hard to access them?
Package
James Arness, Amanda Blake, Milburn Stone and Dennis Weaver are presented in what looks like Technicolor on this front cover. Below them is a shot of Matt Dillon walking away after a gunfight. The back shows us some black and white photos (something that could confuse consumers), a description of what this show is about and technical specs. Paramount has managed to put all 6 discs into an amaray case, with episode listings and descriptions lining the walls. Kudos to Paramount for keeping things highly economical.
Final Word
As a huge fan of this show I was very excited to get this First Season on DVD. I will admit that I was a little bit leery of the fact that 39, one hour episodes (or close to it) were packed on to 6 discs. I just couldn’t see how the quality could be that great. However, since these episodes are in black and white I think that probably helps matters. Lets just say this, I watched this movie on a small TV so any problems with the episodes being overly compressed really didn’t hit me. Had I screened these episodes on a bigger TV, something tells me I would have noticed a great deal more pixilation. All that said, the audience for this show isn’t comprised of cinephiles. It is, I imagine, fans of westerns and probably older viewers who remember this show from when it aired from 1955 to 1975. So, does this mean that these shows now have carte blanche to look crappy? I would say no. I just don’t think the fans of this release are going to be very nitpicky.
As I have mentioned this show has a quality, an originality, a toughness that set the standard for a lot of other shows. Coming on 4 years before Bonanza, Gunsmoke seems to be taken a little more seriously because these types of characters seem like they were almost invented in this medium.
Gunsmoke was released .
